The final installment of Washington state's bill already has sailed through the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee with unanimous approval. The nearly 500-page bill has one more committee stop scheduled before full Senate debate.
Crispin Thurlow, a sociolinguist and associate professor of language and communication at the University of Washington-Bothell, said the project was admirable.
He said that as language evolves, such efforts are more than symbolic.
"Changing words can change what we think about the world around us," he said. "These tiny moments accrue and become big movements."
As in past bills on the issue that have tackled sections of the state code, some revisions were as simple as adding "or her" after "his." Others required a little more scrutiny. Phrases like "man's past" changes to "humankind's past" and a "prudent man or woman" is simply a "prudent person." Kyle Thiessen, the state's code reviser who has been working on the project along with two attorneys since 2008, said that the work was not without obstacles.
Words like "manhole" and "manlock" aren't so easily replaced. Substitutes have been suggested — "utility hole" and "air lock serving as a decompression chamber for workers." But Thiessen said those references will be left alone to avoid confusion.
双语资讯
(Source: Yahoo)
在华盛顿州,诸如“牛奶房工人”、“大学新生”甚至“书法”这类英文含有“man”有男性倾向的词很快都会成为过去。
【美华盛顿州花六年使法律“中性化”】相关文章:
★ 美国逼近财政悬崖
最新
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15